The photo-elastic stress metrology is well known measurement technique widely used in mechanical engineering applications since at least 1940 [1]. Its use in semiconductor manufacturing has been limited since the direct measurements of the stress in silicon are complicated by relatively low values of stress-optic coefficient and need of use on NIR array detectors. The advent of flexible electronics and wide spread of use of PI films as passivation layer give opportunity to take advantage of very strong stress induced birefringence effect in PI for practical application. Here we present practical tool enabling measurement of stress in PI films with resolution down to 1 MPa.
The optical system comprises of (light emitting device) LED panel (light source), polarization components, color filters and camera. Due to the birefringence caused by the stress, the sample changes the light into the elliptically polarized light. To analyze the elliptically polarized light and to eliminate the ambiguity when unwrapping the phase, we employed three (550 nm, 589 nm, and 632 nm) placed directly in front of the camera.
We demonstrate performance of this system for flat panel displays having dimensions up 185 cm x 150 cm (G6). Discuss throughput and repeatability of this metrology. We also discuss scalability of this metrology.
[1] K. Ramesh, “Digital Photoelasticity Advanced Techniques and Applications,” Springer, 2000.
We discuss the application of new synchronized, and virtually synchronized multiprobe real space and frequency domain low coherence interferometers for measurement of wafer thickness and topography. The recently developed low coherence frequency domain interferometers have been proved to be fast and effective tool for measurement of wafer topography, thickness and individual layers within multilayer structures. In our paper we present simple models describing performance of multiprobe metrology and compare it with other solutions.
We report exceptionally good repeatability in non-contact Frequency Space Moire (FSM) Fiber Optic Wafer Thickness Metrology. The FSM method, which is a frequency domain interferometry technique, takes advantage of the low frequency beat-like pattern observed by grating spectrograph in the recorded spectra of the light reflected from the thick samples, and subsequently filtered through the well characterized etalon. In this paper we focus on semiconductor application of the FSM method. The FSM experimentally achieved static repeatability of 0.35 nm for the measurement of thickness of the nominally 508 um thick blanket silicon wafer, which is about 1 part per million, for the acquisition time of 10 ms.
We the tool for measurement of the stress in Generation 6 Flat Panel Displays (G6 FPD) and larger by observing the distortion of image of the light emitting device pattern reflected in the substrate. The observed topography is used to calculate stress in film. The metrology does not involve any moving parts. Tool has repeatability and accuracy of the order of 5 MPa for the glass and film thickness of 0.7 mm, and 5 μm respectively. The measurement time is smaller than 100 s. Tool does is fully compatible with standard robot based glass handling technology.
We describe patent pending fiber optic apparatus for measurements of thicknesses and distance employing low resolution spectrometer and etalon. The application of an additional known reference etalon "stretches fringes" and allows us to use Fabry Perot interference to investigate thick samples and large distances which would not be possible when using the low resolution spectrometer alone.
We have built a novel oblique angle scatterometer designed and optimized for measurements of rough surfaces having a root mean square roughness value (RMS Roughness) on the order of 100 nm – 1000 nm or larger. The majority of existing techniques for measurement of such surfaces are slow, sensitive to vibration, provide short or no working distance, may result in generation of particles and have very small throughput.1 In this paper, we novel metrology addressing the above limitations.
A large numerical aperture (NA in range 0.65-0.8), diffraction limited, broadband (100 nm - 30,000 nm), all-reflective
confocal microscope objective design is discussed. The design is compatible with engineered polarization state of the
excitation beam further decreasing focus spot size. Unlike in the other designs in the proposed system measured sample
does not obscure final reflector. The proposed objective extends spatial and temporal limits of existing novel optical
microscope techniques such as confocal microscopy described, multi-photon microscopy, 4Pi microscopy, I5M
microscopy and others. All reflective design gives promise for high power and high resolution laser-machining
applications.
We present novel fiber optics low coherence interferometer apparatus, and novel probe for in-situ characterization of semiconductor
structures for IR detector manufacturing. Probe does not exhibit polarization, or strain sensitivity observed in earlier invented
systems. In addition it is demonstrated to be able to operate with varying length of optical fibers.
We report a new system for measurement of the spatially resolved quantum efficiency (QE) of the semiconductor solarcells.
In our method solar-cell is illuminated by modified liquid crystal display projector scanner. System allows to
measure photo-current, and optical properties of the illuminated surface. The same system can be also used to measure
surface topography of the wafer, its bow, and warp, and calculate lateral stress in the structure if structure cross-section
is known.
We report application of phase shifting interferometric measurements to study of the spatially resolved quantum
efficiency (QE) of the semiconductor solar-cells. In our method solar-cell is illuminated by two sets of mutually spatially
orthogonal fringe patterns of known frequency, and varying phase (shifted phase). We report theoretical results obtained
using simple analytical model describing properties of small spot size defects, and preliminary experimental results
validating this method. The new method and new apparatus can be also used for studies of spectrally resolved QE.
We present novel method for fully automated detection of calibration features. It reduces computation effort when
compared to traditional corner, edge, and conic detection algorithms. Our method employs generalized method based on
properties of prospective projection invariants [1], but is also applicable for the optical systems suffering high order,
non-spherical distortions. We also show an example when in presence of significant barrel distortion procedure
developed for ideal pinhole camera system outlined in [1] does not converge to unique solution. We suggest new
modified algorithm which produces unique solution.
We present design of novel tool for characterization of wafer thickness and wafer topography employing fast low coherence fiber optic interferometer, which optical length of the reference arm of the interferometer is monitored by secondary long coherence length interferometer.
We present design of novel tool for end point detection of wafer thickness, and wafer topography employing low
coherence fiber optic interferometer, which optical length of the reference arm of the interferometer is monitored by
secondary long coherence length interferometer.
We propose novel tool employing both low coherence interferometer and spectrally resolved reflectometer sensor. We discuss application of this novel tool for measurements of the narrow high aspect ratio structures. We demonstrate that the visible reflectance spectrum of such structures allows us to extend range of interferometer to measure depth trenches with diameter from 2 μm to 1 mm, with reproducibility 10 nm - 100 nm depending on range of the thin film thickness. We also present of this novel tool for measurement of ultra-thin coated pressure sensor membranes. Application of an auxiliary spectral reflectometer allows correcting for systematic errors of low coherence interferometer which can be as large as 1.5 - 2 μm.
We presented novel tool employing both low coherence interferometer, and spectrally resolved reflectometer sensor. We discuss compatibility of this metrology with high resolution Raman spectroscopy. We present measurements of the stability of the Raman spectrometer indicating that system is capable to measure stress in silicon with reproducibility corresponding to 1 MPa and below. We propose integrated tool for simultaneous measurement of stress and displacement of the micro-machined electromechanical devices. Furthermore we propose Raman system configuration allowing measurement of all independent stress tensor components on submicron scale.
Low coherence optical interferometry has been proven to be an effective tool for characterization of thin and ultra-thin, transparent and non-transparent semiconductor Si and compound wafers, and MEMs structures for ex-situ and in-situ applications. We demonstrate that use of synchronously operating probes significantly reduces vibration noise observed in the system. We demonstrate that application of synchronized improves reproducibility of measurement with standard (without vibration insulation) 20 Hz acquisition rate low coherence dual probe interferometer from 1.5 um down to below 0.5 micrometer under vibration conditions of modern semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The synchronous configuration also results in reduction of the cost of the multi-probe system by employing one motion stage rather than several independently controlled stages. Finally we discuss recent progress in high-speed measurements allowing as to increase acquisition rate to >10 kHz (acquisition time shorter than 0.07 msec), while maintaining accuracy and reproducibility of standard slower system.
The most commonly employed tools for wafer thickness and topography metrology are based on capacitance method, which due to physical size of probes, and may not be suitable for direct measurement of multi-layer non-conductive wafers or Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) structures. Recently developed that low coherence interferometry provides solution, which overcomes limitations of these methods. Selected MEMS applications including characterization of deep (high aspect) trenches and membrane structures have been also developed. The above listed applications were limited to measurements of relative distance between two optical interfaces in material transparent at the wavelength of probing radiation. Absolute distance gauging by fiber optic low coherence interferometer is difficult due to large thermal drift (of the order of 0.04 mm/K). We demonstrate that this drift is a result of thermal changes of refractive index of fiber optic glass. We present solution eliminating this drift is based on introduction of the additional reference plane in the signal arm of the Michelson interferometer. Use of this reference plane eliminates influence of changes of refractive index of glass fibers on result of measurement and improves thermal stability of low coherence interferometer by three orders of magnitude.
Novel nondestructive method based on low coherence optical interferometry for measurement of deep etched trenches in MEMs structures is presented. The proposed technique proves to provide very reproducible results and can be easily extended to metrology of other materials such as metals and dielectrics. We present results in real life semiconductor structures and discuss practical and fundamental limits of this technique
The 157 nm F2 laser is becoming the workhorse for lithography tools for the 70 nm technology node. In this paper we review our recent advances in technology and reliability of 157 nm lasers. We discuss the improved lifetimes of main laser components and their impact on Cost of Ownership (CoO) of the F2 laser. The typical lifetime of Lambda Physik Novaline laser discharge tube, coated CaF2 optics, and energy monitors exceeds 3 billion, 2 billion, and 2.5 billion respectively. The CoO of the F2 lasers reaches that of ArF lasers. We also report the results of our very thorough studies on the various line-narrowing arrangements, and feasibility of amplification at 157 nm, in the context of our recent studies of the fundamental spectral properties of F2 lasers.
While the 157 nm optical lithography has become recognized as the most promising solution for the 70-nm node of Semiconductor Industry Association Roadmap, the reliable metrology for this spectral range still remains one of the biggest challenges. We report the results of our long-term exposure measurements, which led to improved performance of the optical components of F2 laser. We discuss in detail the development of the reliable energy monitors degrading less than 3% per billion pulses. We also report the development of novel VUV laser beam profiling tool, measuring the divergence and the width of the beam with accuracy of 0.05 mrad, and 0.10 mm respectively. The compact size makes this tool useful for applications outside the optical laboratory. We also discuss present status and our recent contributions to the high resolution VUV spectroscopy and demanding requirements imposed by 157 nm lithography.
We discuss the results of the studies of Z-pinch sources for photolithographic applications developed by Lambda Physik. We also report the results of fundamental investigations pursued by Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Lasertechnik. Friedrich- Schiller Universitat Jena, Max-Born Institut Berlin, and Gustav August Universitat Gottingen. The later efforts are supported by German government and steered by the industrial consortium led by Lambda Physik.
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